The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone review

Follow the author of this article

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is at its best when it’s being subversive with its fantasy fairytales, delivering unexpected moments that enrich its large, vibrant cast of characters. Developer CD Projekt Red has already demonstrated its ability to create these narrative asides in its exemplary main game - from a mature investigation to locate an abusive husband’s missing spouse, to a lengthy sequence to lure out a character in hiding by planning and enacting a theatrical play for the denizens of Novigrad, the game’s sprawling main city. Wild Hunt almost has nothing left to prove, yet CD Projekt Red is here with two large paid-for expansions - one now, one next year - to further expand its spectacular open-world.

Hearts of Stone succeeds in stringing together several intriguing stories, excellent characters and standout moments in quick succession, and very little of it feels like a retread of quests that main protagonist Geralt has already undertaken. Set concurrently to the main game, this new quest organically expands the main playable map, focusing on the city of Oxenfurt and adding brand new locations to its northern and eastern regions. This new geography consists mostly of small villages, mills and a handful of large stately manors that lie in varying degrees of disrepair. And like all of Wild Hunt’s northern realms, it feels alive and storied in folklore, simultaneously wartorn and serene, and all of it is gorgeous.

Its world is, at times, an oppressively poe-faced place to be, and Hearts of Stone tells a particularly sad tale of apathy, regret and immortality. At the centre of this depressing yarn sits Gaunter O’Dimm, also known as the Merchant of Mirrors, also known as the Man of Glass - one of The Witcher 3’s most enigmatic and sinister characters, and arguably its most menacing villain. Technically a returning face - Geralt met him very briefly, in an inn at the beginning of the game’s main adventure - O’Dimm is the highlight of this story, and the way he slithers himself, between his aliases and into the plot, is exciting and unnerving. As Geralt learns more about O’Dimm, and the role he inhabits in this world, the expansion takes more twists and turns, and it’s wonderful to see through to its climax. There’s one particular scene involving a wooden spoon, and it’s perhaps the most subtly overt show of power in the entire of the Witcher 3. It’s unexpected, and deliciously dark.

Hearts of Stone introduces several other focal characters, including Shani; a standout female companion who makes an unexpected return from the original game. Shani and Geralt’s relationship has history, and CD Projekt Red does a fantastic job of conveying the way these two people feel about each other, their passion and the complexity of their situation, without forcing you to read up on things. It lets you guide how you want their relationship to pan out, while also throwing curveballs along the way, continuing the empowering sense of agency (with unexpected outcomes) that Wild Hunt excels at.

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

While so much of the gameplay remains familiar - engaging in branching conversations, tracking monsters with your superhuman Witcher senses, and engaging in challenging sword combat - it’s the context that makes Hearts and Stone so interesting. You’ll attend a local wedding while under the influence of an unfamiliar alcoholic spirit; a laugh-out-loud sequence of events that changes the pace of play, punctuating Hearts of Stone’s depressive tale with genuinely colourful moments of humour and light hearted fun that fundamentally shift Geralt’s personality to teach you something about the man behind the monster hunting.

There’s also a distinctly unique take on the prince and the frog fairytale, and later you’ll plan a daring heist to rob riches, play characters’ motives off one another, and deal with the consequences when things don’t go quite to plan. Then, as if there isn’t enough content already, a journey to and through an eerie manor house takes proceedings to more supernatural places, and it’s brilliant to see Geralt trying to make sense of one of his most challenging tasks yet.

A new enemy type, Arachnomorphs, mix things up too. These Shelob-ian monstrosities hunt in packs and prove extremely challenging to kill in numbers, scuttling with a horrible screaming ‘hiss’, spitting webs to entrap Geralt before moving in for the kill. It’s a shame to see that CD Projekt didn’t add more new monsters, something we’re always eager to see them add their unique spin to, but the several challenging boss encounters that pervade the entire expansion stack among the main game’s best duels. We won’t spoil any for fear of ruining the shocks/surprises, but each requires you to be dexterous with your blades and quick to act with your signs, potions and oils. It can be frustrating as you learn attack patterns and look to exploit weaknesses, especially if you’re playing with a post-endgame Geralt that’s readjusting to a challenge, but Hearts of Stone takes inspirations from the Souls series; the fights are tough but almost always fair, and overcoming these obstacles is a triumph.

This new adventure moves quickly, and feels like Wild Hunt in microcosm; cool moment after cool moment, condensed into a much shorter running time, with less cool distractions to pull you off in every which direction. Having less to do is no bad thing, and this story feels more focused and well paced as a result. Without adding an entirely new continent to explore - something the second expansion, Blood and Wine, promises to do in 2016 - CD Projekt Red still manages to ensure that this world feels interesting, that its characters are compelling, and that its stories are memorable and still have something to say, both narratively and thematically.